Chinese Meat, Egg Consumption Up Substantially

The average Chinese ate nearly five times as much meat last year as before economic reform began in 1979, and more than eight times as many eggs, a newspaper said Friday.

Figures reported by the Farmers Daily highlight the explosion in the diversity and size of the Chinese diet, driven by growing prosperity after decades of scarcity and near-starvation.

Chinese on average ate 94 pounds of meat last year, 4.8 times the level of 1978, the newspaper said. It said egg consumption rose 8.5 times to an average of 38 pounds per person.

Consumption of dairy products rose to 15 pounds per person from a figure so small it was not officially recorded, the report said.

Farmers and herdsmen produced 55 million tons of meat last year, more than six times the 1978 figure, while production of eggs and dairy products increased tenfold, the paper said.